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April 22, 2014

Finding John Herrel's Naturalization in an Unindexed FamilySearch Collection

John George Herrel, my
great-great-grandfather, was the last of my direct ancestors to immigrate to
America. In a previous post, The Joy of Holding History in Your Hands, I wrote
about viewing his original declaration of intention to become a U.S. citizen.
The declaration indicates he left the port of Le Havre, France, on 7 August
1880, and arrived in New York City on 29 August. He was a 21-year-old native of
Germany. It was filed with the Hamilton County, Ohio, Probate Court on 25 March
1881, less than a year after his arrival.

Until last week, however, I
had not been able to find John’s certificate of naturalization, which would
show he completed the citizenship process. Thanks to a cooperative effort
between Hamilton County government offices and FamilySearch.org, thousands of
early Cincinnati records have recently been digitized and made freely available
online. It took a bit of perseverance, but I’m happy to report that I found
John’s naturalization record.

The new FamilySearch.org
collection, “Ohio, Hamilton County Records, 1791-1994,” is not indexed, so
simply entering John’s name in the main search box won’t bring up his naturalization.
What do you do when the records you need
aren’t indexed? To help others looking for records in browse-only
FamilySearch collections, I thought I’d share the process I used, step by step:

1. From the FamilySearch homepage, choose Search. Scroll down to the bottom of the page where you see a map
of the world. Under “Browse All Published Collections,” click on United States.

2. In the box “Filter by
Collection Name,” enter Ohio. In the list that appears, scroll and select
“Ohio, Hamilton County Records, 1791-1994.” You’ll note it says Browse Images—a
sign that the collection is not indexed.

3. Read the description of
the collection, then click on “Browse through 1,151,606 images.” (Don’t worry,
you won’t have to look at them all!)

You’ll see the collection
includes Land and Property Records, Probate Records, Naturalization Records,
and Vital Records. Choose Naturalization.

4. A long list of choices will
be displayed. Since I already have John’s declaration of intention, I can
bypass those. Based on my information, I started with “Petitions for
Naturalization, vol. 5, 1884-1885.”

5. The volume opens on Image
1. The first several pages of the volume contain an alphabetical index. Scroll
through these using the arrow next to the image number box until you find the H
page (for Herrel). In time, I learned the H index usually appeared about Image
9, so as a shortcut, I could enter 9 in the box and click Go. You’ll see there
are no Herrels indexed in this volume. To go back to the list, click on
“Naturalization Records” in blue.

6. I repeated this process
for Petitions for Naturalization volumes 6, 7, and 8. I didn’t find a single
Herrel indexed in any of those volumes, which initially discouraged me. But
wait, there’s more! Keep scrolling down and you’ll find “Petitions for
Naturalization, vol. A-1, 1884-1894.” This appears to be another ledger kept by
a different courtroom or judge. Alas, there are no Herrels in this volume,
either. I went back to the list and tried vol. A-6 and vol. A-7 (there’s no
mention of vols. A-2 through A-5), again without results.

7. Finally, I hit paydirt
with “Petitions for Naturalization, vol. A-8, 1884-1885.” There he was: Herrel,
John, page 227. Now I needed to find what image number corresponds to page 227.
Entering 227 in the image box number took me to ledger page 101, so I needed to
go much higher. By trial and error, I found page 227 at image 479. Success at
last! I checked the next page, too, but John’s record is only a single page.

See what I mean by
perseverance? Browsing through unindexed collections may take more time and
effort, but it’s not hard to do, and the results are worth it. In fact, it took
me a lot longer to write this blog post than it did to search the indexes of all
eight volumes one by one.

Now I know John Herrel stood
before a judge in Hamilton County, Ohio, to take his oath and become a citizen
of the United States on 28 September 1885. What a proud moment that had to be
for him and his family. Of course, I’d be happier today if the record stated
the name of the town in Germany he came from, but I have to remember that
wasn’t why the record was created. The court only needed to know he had
fulfilled the requirements for citizenship and renounced his allegiance to the
Emperor of Germany.

The bottom line is that
browse-only collections like these on FamilySearch hold many untold
treasures. Don’t be afraid to give them a try!

So glad you were able to find him, Shelley! I totally agree: the unindexed files at FamilySearch hold many gems. It's just the tedium of finding your gem! If there is an art and a science to the hunt-and-peck method, you've helped by documenting your path. And what fortitude to hold out until you found him in volume 8!

I can relate to the excitement of finding a document in an unindexed FamilySearch records. You never know whether you'll find what you're looking for or how far and how long you'll have to look but when you find that document, it's always worth the time and trouble. Maybe one day FS will have us indexing the court records.

I remember thinking the same thing - what a proud moment - for the day one of my ancestors became a naturalized citizen. He had a wife and a small child and I can just imagine them standing together looking at his naturalization certificate.

I can also identify with the disappointment of not having a city of origin named. I think if our ancestors had come over 25 years or so later, the process for becoming a naturalized citizen require more details.

I do have a picture in my mind of John standing in the courtroom, with his wife and little son watching, all dressed in their Sunday best. I can't help but think that becoming a citizen was a big deal to him. You're right--in later years, they usually did name the city the immigrant came from. And so the hunt continues...

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About the Author

I'm a family history researcher, writer, and blogger based in Central Ohio. A Sense of Family chronicles my journey into family history, and I'd love to have you read along. In the process, I hope to give you some tips and resources you can use to trace and record the stories of your own family. I also offer professional genealogy services at Buckeye FamilyTrees, where I specialize in researching Ohio ancestors.